A schoolgirl avoided being run over by seconds when her bicycle skidded into the path of a guided bus.

Passengers have described how they shut their eyes in terror as the girl leapt off the track between Histon and Oakington with moments to spare at about 8.45am today.

She escaped unharmed but her bike went under the front of the bus and was dragged along the track, while the glass in the bus door was shattered.

The bus involved was a Stagecoach service travelling from Cambridge to Huntingdon railway station, while the cyclist had been travelling towards Cambridge.

Holly Collas, 23, was sitting in the front row of the bus when the collision happened.

Holly, of Searle Street, Arbury, said: “The girl appeared to lose her balance and I don’t know if the bus coming made her panic more but she wobbled and went into the busway, her and the bike.

“The bus driver started to slow quite considerably and she was trying to get out of the way and had a few seconds but the bus went over her bike. I would say it was a matter of seconds and I had to close my eyes because I didn’t know what was going to happen.

“The door shattered, and I was sat at the very front of the bus, so it shattered right in my face. It was very scary.”

Holly, who was travelling to work at the MG Owners’ Club in Swavesey, added: “She was very lucky, it could have been 10 times’ worse.

“If she had been three seconds longer on the floor or had fallen three seconds later, she would have been well and truly under that bus.”

Many passengers on the bus were shaken up but no-one was hurt. The busway was closed for a brief period.

Andy Campbell, managing director of Stagecoach Cambridgeshire, said: “There was a young lady who was cycling from Oakington towards Cambridge.

“For some reason her bike skidded from underneath her and rolled into the track. On its way it broke the glass in the front door and then became wedged underneath the bus.

“She fell off but managed to roll out of the way. Our leading driver then took the young lady back home to her parents and we recovered the bike from underneath the bus. There was minor disruption to service.”